It is fair to say nobody ever stops to ask whether the Premier League’s bright
lights are powered from sustainable sources.

Walk through any training ground car park, surrounded by four-by-fours and sports cars, or through any superstar’s house,containing every luxury imaginable. Ask in any dressing room. This is a world where conspicuous consumption matters. Energy efficiency does not. It is a good thing Gary Neville has always enjoyed a challenge.

“You always get the cynicism,” says the former Manchester United captain of his attempts to explain environmental responsibility to his erstwhile team-mates. Some understood - Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer lived in a “sustainable property,” he discussed the issue with Ryan Giggs - but the majority, in reality, probably did not.

“A dressing room is brutal, but the reality is that people are starting to understand. They do get it, when you speak to them one on one. In a group atmosphere, it is a bit of banter, but one on one, they understand. And when people get the message - and that will come: in the few years there will come a moment when everyone gets this - they will recognise this is going to happen.”

That is Neville: whatever he discusses, he does it with passion, and energy, and intensity. He talks a lot, and his fervour, his zealotry, is palpable.

That articulate garrulousness is the trait which made him the ideal candidate when Sky wished to replace Andy Gray as its resident pundit, observer and controversialist; the idea of Red Nev turning from Sir Alex Ferguson’s foot-soldier into eco-warrior is a rather less natural progression.

“There wasn’t one moment when I was converted,” says Neville, holding court in a suite at Forest Green Rovers, the non-league club owned by Dale Vince, managing director of Ecotricity, Britain’s largest sustainable energy supplier. Neville chose Ecotricity to sponsor next week’s testimonial with Juventus, Britain’s first wind-powered football match, as the right “ethical partner”, and has teamed up with Vince to launch the Sustainability in Sport initiative.

“Like everybody else in the country, I recognised that I had to change and make a difference. Whatever walk of life people are in, I think everybody is feeling the need for change every day. Fuel prices, the environment, climate change. They are all issues that are never far away. I knew I wasn’t going to make that difference in one day so I decided it was going to be a five year project for me to make a large change in my life.

“I still have a lot of change and progression to make in my life and I’m sure if you followed me every day you could pick holes in me. The reality is that this is a journey and it’s a journey I want to make and believe in; it’s a journey I believe we all have to make.”

Neville is at pains to stress that he is not setting himself up as a paragon of virtue: he had “16-18 months” driving a Toyota Prius, but currently owns an Audi; he does not buy local and organic every single time he goes to the supermarket. His desire to improve seems genuine, heartfelt.

But that is not to say that his public stance on the environment is hypocritical, a message he preaches, but does not practice. Far from it.

Last week, after an 18-month fight, the 36-year-old received planning permission to build a new home near Bolton. Not just any home, though. It is, as Neville himself puts it, “carbon zero”.

The original plan - estimated to cost around £6 million - was for six petal-shaped zones, labelled “relax,” “eat,” “work,” “entertain”, “play” and “sleep,” built partially underground and cut into a hillside. The scheme’s greenest elements - a 30ft wind turbine and a photo-voltaic solar panel array – earned it the rather cruel sobriquet of the “Teletubby House”. It is to be made of local stone and boast a grass meadow roof. There was fervent local objection; it has, finally, passed.

“You’re always going to get that attitude towards footballers,” says Neville, when it is suggested to him that, as an athlete who played for the 15 richest years in football’s history, it is easier for him to set an example than it is for others to follow it. “But the reality is that I could build a house that was not sustainable and that did not send a message out.

“I did not have to allow local students to have a look [at the house, every month, to understand how it works] and to make [the plans] public knowledge. I do not have to do those things. I am in a privileged position, and I do not shy away from that.

“It will have a wind turbine, it will have some solar panels, there will be the rainwater recovery systems, the orientation of the building so it’s facing the right way to [trap heat]. All that’s been looked at so it will hopefully be one I can enjoy living in, but also one in which I can live a more sustainable life and make change. It may be a statement piece but sometimes you have to get the message out.”

It is not just in his home, though, that Neville intends to make a difference. Through his partnership with Vince and Ecotricity and their joint venture Sustainability in Sport, he hopes to enjoy as much success making football fans conscious of the environment as the Kick It Out campaign did highlighting sport’s problems with racism.

Vince admits it is ambitious. “Clubs can capture the rainwater and use it for the pitch and then capture that drainwater and recycle it,” he says.

“You can make your own energy with [solar] PV on the roof, and windmills nearby are possible at some clubs. Food is really important, buying organic and locally where they can.”

That is the how: the why is more significant. Neville insists clubs are doing more than they are given credit for; Vince, who set up Ecotricity 15 years ago and has thus far fought to build 52 windmills across the country, believes taking “the message to the mainstream” is the hardest, but only, way of convincing Middle England to change its ways.

“I believe it is the clubs’ responsibility,” he says. “If you are selling something to someone, it is your responsibility to make sure it is good. There are clubs that only care about the bottom line. That has to change.”

Neville agrees. “We are not looking to lambast anyone,” he adds. “We are looking to bring people with us. We will try and poke and nudge where we have to, because sport does have a responsibility.” Poking and nudging: that sounds like the old Neville. If that is what is required, then football’s unlikeliest eco-warrior is also its best-qualified.